The bell over the entrance to Jakobsen Toys and Games rang. "Just a moment," Vivian called. She put aside the game box she was assembling and turned around. "How may I help-oh. You."

Ulf grinned, his white teeth flashing against his carefully trimmed blond stubble. "Who else? You knew I was coming."

Ulf was the games reviewer for the Arendelle Messenger. For Vivian and her husband Stefan, there was no avoiding him, no matter how much they wanted to. She reached for a copy of her newest game. "Take your review copy and get out," she said, dropping it onto the counter.

Ulf leaned over the counter, ignoring the box and peering down the front of her dress. She backed up a step, and his eyes followed her chest. He asked, "Am I going to like it?"

"Do you time it so that my husband"-she emphasized the word-"isn't here when you come by?"

"Yes."

"Figures." Stefan was out picking up more copies from the printer. "Do you even play games anymore?"

Ulf chuckled. "Aren't we playing one right now? And maybe there's another game you and I could play. Just the two of us."

"I don't have any other games for you." Vivian and Stefan had complained to the Messenger and been ignored. They had complained to the police and been told that there was no evidence of a crime, even if the detective had agreed that Ulf was creepy. The Messenger had a new editor-in-chief. Maybe they should complain again.

"Really?" Ulf looked down at the box. "Ogre," he read. "An ugly word. Maybe it's an ugly game. I don't think I'll like it. I wonder if there's something you could do to make me like it better." He rubbed his crotch.

Vivian had never wanted to know how far Ulf's sick urges would go. Stefan was supposed to be back soon. She needed a delay; she decided to play dumb. "How about I walk you through it? It's an asymmetrical tactical warfare simulation." Ulf leered at her. Directing her eyes at the box, she continued, "You can either play as the humans defending your castle or as an ogre trying to destroy the human castle."

As Vivian reached for the box lid, Ulf grabbed her arm. "That's not what you need to do for me."

Vivian tried to draw her arm back, but Ulf held tight. He had never touched her before. Stefan still wasn't back. "Take your filthy paw off of me," she said.

"You know what I want." Ulf pulled her hand to his side of the counter and stopped it right in front of his crotch. "Come on."

Vivian's heart pounded in her chest. Her vision dimmed, and she could see only her hand, hovering inches from Ulf. She tried to break free again, but without success.

The doorbell rang again. Ulf let go of Vivian and scooped up the box. He said, "Thank you. I expect I'll have a review next week." He turned. Stefan was standing in the door. "Stefan!" he said. "Pleased to see you."

Stefan saw that his wife was trembling. She sniffled, and he noticed a tear running down her cheek. He said to Ulf, "Get out."

"Of course. Good day."

When Ulf had left, Vivian knelt on the floor, and Stefan held her while she cried.

Footsteps pounded down the hallway. A glowing, grinning Anna ran into Elsa's study. "It's here!" Anna said.

"What's here?"

"It just arrived!" Anna held up a brown paper package.

"What? What's going on?"

"Come on come on, let's play." Anna set the package on Elsa's desk and tore it apart, scattering strips of paper wrapping across the floor. "See?" Anna proclaimed. She held up a cardboard box. "Sit down and play with me!" She pulled the lid off the box and began sifting through pieces of cardboard.

Elsa picked up the box lid. Big letters proclaimed, "OGRE". In smaller print it said, "A board game for two players. From Jakobsen Toys and Games." Most of the cover was an illustration of an army of men battling a gigantic ogre five times their height.

Anna said, "Help me figure out the rules."

Elsa studied the drawing of the ogre. It held a club in one hand and carried a sack of boulders on its back. The men were swinging swords at its shins. "Didn't it get a terrible review?" Elsa asked.

"The Messenger never likes the Jakobsens' work. Everyone is talking about the game, it's supposed to be amazing."

Elsa put down the lid. "Maybe Kristoff will play with you."

Kristoff, however, was out making ice deliveries, so Anna had to content herself with reading and rereading the rules. At dinner that evening, all Anna could talk about was Ogre. "So the ogre can attack with both his arms each turn, and he can swing his club or throw a boulder or punch, and he can also kick you with each of his legs, and if he moves on top of you then he tramples you, and when you hit him you have to target a part of his body, and when you've hurt a body part enough then he gets weaker, which means a good strategy is to attack his legs, because then he can't move as fast, because otherwise it only takes him eight turns to get to the castle, and if he gets there he can destroy it in one turn, but if you only attack his legs, then if he gets into range he can still throw boulders at the castle-"

Elsa had stopped even pretending to pay attention to Anna's monologue. She had decided to eat as fast as she could and leave. Kristoff was nodding but was lost among the endless details of gameplay. The game sounded interesting-who wouldn't want to beat up an ogre?-but complicated, maybe too complicated to enjoy.

Within days Anna became absorbed by Ogre. She played it constantly, first with Kristoff, then, after Elsa refused to play, with the servants. When she wasn't playing Ogre, she was thinking and talking about it. "I dreamed I was a cavalryman," she announced at breakfast a few weeks later, "and I charged the ogre, but my second move turn got skipped so I couldn't retreat, and the ogre trampled me, so I couldn't move on my next turn, but then Kristoff fired a cannon at the ogre and he died."

Elsa interrupted, "Anna? Are there any women in Ogre?"

Anna knew what Elsa was suggesting, but she didn't want to implicate Ogre and its designer. She said, "The armies could have women. It doesn't say anywhere."

"I got a letter," Elsa said. "From the Messenger's games reviewer. He says the game is misogynistic. He didn't want to say anything in his review because he didn't want to draw attention to the game. But now that it's popular, he wants me to ban it."

Anna gasped. "No no no, you can't ban it! It's so much fun! If you would just play a game with me-"

"The story says there are women and children in the castle, right? So the men are defending the women, as if women are weak and can't defend themselves."

Anna stammered, "But, but, but it's not like that!"

"Is he lying?"

"They just fired him though!"

"Still, is he lying?"

Anna guessed that she had already played Ogre for about fifty hours. She had gotten good at the game, but she was still exploring. She spent most of her days discovering new strategies. Losing Ogre would put a hole in her life. Yet, she wondered, she hadn't thought about the story since the first day. Maybe she had been blind. "I guess not," she said.

"It's at least worth investigating. I'm going to arrest the designer."

Anna's eyes went wide. She knew what that would lead to. "Elsa, the world isn't about men's privates. Freezing off a toymaker's manhood doesn't help anyone."

"Depends on the toymaker. We'll see."

Stefan's arrest for promoting the oppression of women left Vivian in shock. Pending an investigation, they weren't allowed to sell Ogre. Vivian had repeated to the policemen over and over, "But I'm the designer. I made Ogre." It hadn't done any good.

Publishing a new game always forced Stefan and Vivian to dip into their savings, and while they had already recouped most of their costs, without further sales it would be hard to afford a lawyer. Feeling that she had no better options, Vivian wrote to both the queen and, because Princess Anna didn't share her sister's harsh disposition, to the princess. Within hours, Princess Anna wrote an excited reply. Its handwriting was big and uneven, as if her hands had been shaking. Vivian wasn't sure whether the reply's excitement was genuine or feigned, but she accepted the offer of an audience immediately.

Vivian put on her favorite green and purple dress, tied her wavy, voluminous red hair back in a purple ribbon, and went to the castle. When Vivian entered the library, Elsa and Anna were sitting across from each other playing Ogre. Vivian said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness," and curtsied. "Thank you for seeing me."

"Come and sit," said Elsa.

Vivian sat between Elsa and Anna and looked at the game board. Elsa, who seemed to be the Ogre, had made the beginner's mistake of chasing after human forces instead of focusing on the castle, and that had left her in a difficult position. "Do you like my game, Ma'am?" Vivian asked Elsa.

Anna jumped in. "Yes! I've played it so much. The strategy is so deep, like how I realized a few days ago that you could have an army of all cannons, and it didn't work the first time, but-"

"Oh, it'll work!" said Vivian. "But it's harder to play than a mixed defense, and a good ogre can get through it. Have you tried an army of all cavalry?"

While Anna and Vivian became involved in an animated discussion of strategy, Elsa sat and listened. Vivian's letter had claimed she was the designer of Ogre, but Elsa had thought that might be a ploy to get Stefan freed. As Vivian explained how she had decided on the rules and what tradeoffs she had made, Elsa began to be convinced. Still, knowing that Vivian was the designer of Ogre didn't change Ogre's unacceptable message. Elsa figured that Vivian, being a woman, was unlikely to have consciously made a game that contributed to her own oppression, but internalized oppression would explain Ogre's plot. Perhaps Stefan mistreated her at home. "Vivian?" Elsa asked. "What about the story? Where did you come up with the idea for an ogre to eat women and children?"

"Oh, that was an afterthought. I came up with it only a week before we published."

"But that's the part that concerns me. It seems anti-woman."

While Vivian had known that Stefan had been arrested because of Ogre, she had assumed it was a pretext. The queen seemed to be saying it wasn't, that the backstory she had thrown together and believed harmless was the true reason for Stefan's imprisonment. "Really? The story isn't important."

"It's the most important part! That's why everyone is fighting!"

Elsa's vehemence was frightening. As long as the queen believed that Ogre was misogynistic, Stefan was in danger. "Actually I meant Ogre to be empowering," Vivian improvised.

"What? How so?"

"The ogre is an oppressed minority," Vivian said. "The game gives players the opportunity to understand what it's like to have an entire society united against you. And," she said, thinking of a theme the queen would like, "there's no more oppressed minority than women. I knew I could never make a popular game that was openly about the plight of women. Ogre pretends to be about a fantasy battle, but it's really a commentary on contemporary society."

Elsa nodded and looked at the game board. She hadn't realized it before, but while playing as the ogre she had felt oppressed. She had only a single piece to move while Anna had an entire army. Some of Anna's pieces were born with advantages that Elsa would never have, like cavalry's ability to move twice per turn. The ogre's only advantage was its ability to withstand constant, degrading abuse from all corners. "Tell me more," she said.

"I thought that a game about women's position in society could be an effective agent for change. But if it was too explicit, men would refuse to play. Everything had to be below the surface."

"Is there anything else to the symbolism?"

Vivian began, "Well, not really," before inspiration struck. "But actually, the castle has a meaning, too. It's the thing men guard most of all. The thing that makes them what they are. You know."

"Of course! So when the ogre destroys their manhood, he breaks their power." Elsa clapped her hands. "I love it! It's brilliant!"

Vivian was relieved. Maybe now Elsa would let Stefan go and would let them sell the game.

Elsa asked, "So do you think people will learn from it?"

"Pre-orders were strong, Ma'am, and sales have been good. I'm hopeful."

Elsa became pensive. "I wonder, though, whether they'll understand the symbolism. I certainly missed it."

"Ma'am, I want everyone to miss it. I don't want anyone else to hear what I just said. Ever."

"I know, but what happens after they've played Ogre? What would their next step be?" Elsa mused, "They need another game. A game more explicitly about women so that they can draw connections between the game and their behavior. A game about the lives we lead and the trials we suffer." Elsa laid her hand on Vivian's forearm. "Vivian, could you make an openly pro-women game? As a favor to me?"

Anna interrupted, "Can I help? Please, please, please!"

Elsa's hand was cold, and Vivian's husband was still in jail. "Of course," she said. "Tell me more."

"The setting, the style, the gameplay, all of it's up to you. You may make any game you like as long as it's about being a woman."

Anna said, "I have an idea! I want to help!"

Vivian didn't feel like she was in a position to decline the princess's request, so she said, "Uh, okay."

"Yes!" exclaimed Anna, pumping her fists into the air. "I get to make a game with my favorite designer of all time!"

Elsa said, "I should leave you to it, then. Have fun."

Stefan was released, and the ban on Ogre was lifted. The publicity made sales of Ogre surge. Vivian, though, was more worried than before. Anna's idea, an idea she clung to with unwavering tenacity, was to make a game about fashion and makeup and socializing. "It's perfect," Anna said. "Women everywhere will relate to it." Vivian almost agreed. If the queen didn't like the game, she and Stefan might end up in a worse situation than before.

Vivian and Anna spent a feverish two weeks designing the game. The centerpiece of the game was going to balls. Each round, players would design dresses, choose a hairstyle, accessorize, and go to a ball. Playing a friendship card on another player could give access to more skilled dressmakers or to more fashionable shoes and jewelry, and playing a rumor card disrupted a friendship.

Anna found herself giggling with excitement far too often. When Elsa asked her how the game was going, she'd say, "Marvelous! You're going to love it!" Vivian hoped that Anna knew her sister.

After a few more weeks of playtesting, Vivian and Stefan ordered an initial print run of a hundred copies. Only a hundred, Vivian said to Stefan, "in case the queen bans it."

The game was entitled, "Ballroom." The day of publication, Anna demanded that Elsa come with her to Jakobsen Toys and Games to see the finished product assembled for the first time. Elsa would have been just as happy not to go, but to please her sister, she agreed. When they arrived, a surprised Vivian greeted them and said, "Stefan is picking up the parts from the printer right now. So far we only have the proofs."

Vivian took Anna and Elsa into the back and showed them the prototype board, cards, and playing pieces. Anna volunteered, "I want to show it off! Don't worry about us, you can mind the shop." Vivian was relieved. Hopefully Anna would take the blame for anything the queen didn't like. If pressed, Vivian planned to insist that the game was meant as irony.

While Vivian sat at the counter, weighing her and Stefan's fate, the bell over the shop door rang. Vivian looked up. Ulf was standing in the door.

"What are you doing here?" asked Vivian.

Ulf grinned. "Picking up my review copy."

"We got you fired!"

"I'm games reviewer for the Independent."

"That rag? Nobody reads them. They don't even review games."

"They do now. Come on, give it to me," Ulf said as he walked into the shop. "Unless there's something else you'd like to give me."

"Go to hell," Vivian said.

Ulf's grin twisted into a grimace. "I wouldn't say that if I were you. You made me pretty upset. Most men, they'd want revenge." Ulf advanced to the counter and leaned so far over it that Vivian could feel his hot breath. "What do you think I want, Vivian?"

"I'm not alone in here, you know," said Vivian. "All I have to do is scream."

"Nice try, but I know Stefan's not here."

After Ulf's last visit, Vivian and Stefan had stowed a club under the counter. As she reached for it, Ulf grabbed her arm.

"Not so fast," Ulf said. "Don't try to reach for anything."

"Let me go!" said Vivian as she struggled to escape Ulf's grip. With her free hand, she beat against his arm, but he held tight.

Ulf pulled Vivian around the counter and shouted in her face. "I'll do whatever I want, you obnoxious bitch!" Vivian kicked Ulf, striking him in the hip, and in response he punched her across her face. He leaned his weight onto her, forcing her to lie on the ground. "You don't have the right to complain! You don't have the right to get me fired!" He wrenched her legs apart and pinned them to the ground beneath his knees. Holding her throat with one hand, he undid his belt and pulled his pants down with his other hand. "I'm not going to be mocked any longer! I've had it with you, you stupid woman!"

"Help! Help!" screamed Vivian.

Anna opened the door at the back of the shop. "Vivian? What's-oh my God!"

Ulf looked up at Anna and Elsa standing in the doorway. In his rage he didn't recognize the royal family, and he was too close to completing his revenge to stop now. "Watch her get what she deserves!" he cried.

Elsa pushed past Anna, dove over the counter, and fired a bolt of ice. As Ulf began to thrust his hips towards Vivian, the bolt struck the tip of his member, freezing it. Ulf screeched and drew back, and moments later Elsa crashed into him, knocking him over. As Ulf moaned in pain, Elsa grabbed his manhood and, with a devilish smirk, froze it solid.

Ulf curled up into a ball and whimpered. Elsa raised a cage of ice around him while they waited for the police. Anna held Vivian as she cried with relief.

Ulf was taken to the gallows, where his already frozen manhood was broken off in public. He was then arrested on charges of harassment, assault, and battery. Elsa was so excited by having emasculated someone again that she hardly paid attention to Ballroom. Its first print run sold out within the day, and the Jakobsens soon went back for a second, then a third. Anna glowed every time she read a review or heard the game mentioned. Elsa was convinced that it was awakening Arendelle's consciousness towards women's issues. Vivian was just glad she and her husband were safe.